In the wake of last week's ruling that Novell, and not SCO, controls the copyrights covering UNIX, Novell is reassuring Unix users that it has no plans to follow in SCO's footsteps. Given that the company is no longer in the business of selling UNIX, it has no reason to pursue any copyright claims.

I suggest that we wait and see. I doubt that Novell knew they owned the copyrights until the SCO thing blew in and they looked into the details.

I'm not saying that they will turn around and assert their rights tomorrow. But their battle with Microsoft has not gone well. When push comes to shove, if the board feels that they have value, you can bet that they will move to "monetize" them. Possibly under a new chairman if the stockholders decide to oust Hovsepian as they did Messman. Stockholders (that's you and me) become ugly, cold, heartless creatures when they put their stockholder's caps on.

And remember. You don't have to have a case to sue. SCO had less of one than Novell. We're at over 4 and a half years now.

So I say watch and wait, and we can revisit the issue when they decide to act.